By Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line
…Nigeria to Still Contest for 5th place to Qualify for IHF World Cup on Thursday.
NIGERIA ON Tuesday slumped at the BK Arena in Kigali before 100 fans to the fire powers of their Egyptian counterparts 48-22 as Egypt scored a goal almost in each minute played in the game though first half ended 24-10.
Nigerian head coach, Rafiu Salami was yellow carded; player Daniel Bello saw red after receiving 2 minutes suspension thrice, Rotibi Victor and John Shagari got 2 minutes suspension twice each .
That is to show the tenseness of the game in which Yusuf Farouk scored 9 goals and Salami Hakkem 6 goals for Nigeria.
One of the Coaches on the Egyptian bench, Balaca Antonio was also yellow carded; his player who does dirty works for Egypt, Jose Chicola got a straight red while Jose Reuben got 2 minutes suspension twice.
Claudio Chicola scored 9 goals; Gabriel Sebastiao 5 while Pestana Adelino scored 4.
To get to this stage, Nigeria shocked Algeria 25-23; doubled up Zambia 36-18; locked up hosts Rwanda 30-20 but lost to Angola 24-27.
Super Champs and three times defending champions back-to-back as current Champions having won the last tournament beating Algeria 29-21 at Cairo 2024 finals, Egypt beat Gabon 36-25; hanged Angola 41-28; dealt with Uganda 54-13 and hammered Algeria 42-28.
Nigeria had never beaten Egypt in the three times they met before. Egypt spanked Nigeria 34-20 on 22nd October 2016; drilled Nigeria 27-22 on 18th January 2018 and on 17th March 2024 silenced Nigeria 27-24.
In another Group 1 match between Algeria and Angola played at the same venue earlier today, Tuesday, Algeria hanged Angola 27-22 goals with half time scores at 14-10 in favor of Algeria.
Three Algerian players bagged the yellow card namely Atek Youcef, Daoud Hichem and Bouakaz Abderraouf. Abdi Ayyoub again emerged the highest scorer for Algeria with8 goals while Daoud Hichem and Nori Benhalima scored 5 goals each.
No Angola player got yellow carded but Pestana Adelino scored 7 goals while Gabriel Sebastiao scored 4.
Algeria and Angola had met thrice before on 30th January 2016 that Angola won 25-19; on 24th January 2018 Angola again narrowly won 29-27 but on 26th January 2020 it was Algeria that won 32-27.
Egypt is the defending champions of the tournament and has won the title for a good 9 times after Tunisia that has won the title a record 10 times.
Eight teams, two each from the bottom of each of the four groups will go and play for the President’s Cup which is less fancied to the main trophy. They will also play verification matches to determine rankings and placing from Africa.
The final rounds of the tournament will feature two semifinals to be played on 29th January. The 3rd place match will precede the finals on the 31st of January.
The tournament that started Wednesday 21st January is expected to draw her curtain on 31st January and this tournament will stand as qualifications for Africa’s representatives at the World Men’s Handball Championship in Germany in 2027.
The next Men’s world Handball cup tournament will take place in Germany from 13th to 31st January 2027 with 32 teams on parade, five from each Confederation.
#HACON2026 #AHBF #EHF
#NSC #NHF #AHF
